Login : Register Home : Tags

Alexisonfire

Latest journal entries

What's up with Rob?

Personal

Other than still being able to write lame rhymes, everything is dandy here. I'm still somewhat hyper from GIAN and with three concerts coming up this weekend this means my happy vibe is going to be a prolonged one! I can't really dismiss Laura either but whatever the exact reason for the vibe, I feel great. :-)

Work is quite hectic, I put in plenty of over-time this weekend. And it looks like trips to Moscow (finally!) and Bucharest are about to happen this month. But anyone who slightly knows me also knows that I like to not just play hard but also work hard (when I'm not lazy). The only downside is that I haven't really had time to work on the new Capsi site but I'm hopeful that I will find a bit of time for that pet project later this week. I still have to finish the blogs, picture galleries, friends lists, proper form feedbacks and whatnot.. the basics look very promising to me though.

Tonight however will be a regular pub night.. I feel like I've deserved it, so you know where you can find me!

Edit: oops, hangover! Also, God apparently felt like handing me lemons because both Alexisonfire shows have been cancelled due to a family emergency for the band. So I made lemonade and hacked together cancellations and postponed dates for the concert site. :-D

GIAN 2007 London Day 1

Gigs

What a morning! Forgot to set the alarm (damn drunken Thursdays!) so I was very fortunate to wake up at 5:10am which gave me just enough time to shower, pack and head to Rotterdam airport where a VLM flight was waiting to take me to London City airport. Dropped my luggage at the hotel around 9am and went to Camden where I decided a new tattoo would be a nice way to remember the GIAN weekend.

Around half 3 I walked up to Earl's Court after checking in at the hotel (can't do that in the morning). To be honest, Friday was by far the best day for music at Give It A Name in London. Countless of great bands played, with special kudos to Mindless Self Indulgence, Alexisonfire and the once-again very drunk Ville Valo of HIM. Their performance actually sucked but I met a nice bloke from London named Zach with whom I quickly managed a nice deal, he'd let me smoke his pot if I used my Dutch rolling skills. Needless to say, at the end of Friday I was quite stoned and couldn't care less that HiM was funny at best.

(Post-dated entry, written later than it appears to avoid an endless row of pictures inside the journal.)

Ready for GIAN

Gigs

Happy St. George's Day! I'm ready for Give It A Name!

On Saturday Powerfest gave me a nice preview featuring the likes of MxPx, Mewithoutyou, Sparta, Mindless Self Indulgence (yay!), Motion City Soundtrack and Jimmy Eat World. Added bonus: Voodoo Glow Skulls.. awesome!

This morning I booked a nice hotel in the Bayswater area which. It costed me more than I'd like to admit, but maybe now I'll finally learn to find a hotel early on. For some reason it's hard to find a good deal just four days prior to arrival.. oops.

Two more days of work after this one and then I'm off to Kinki for a new haircut on Thursday, followed by a pre-flight gig at Waterfront (Tiger Army). Then it's off to London City Airport, check-in to the hotel, party like a madman (HIM, Alexisonfire, Mindless Self Indulgence), sleep. Saturday: meet up with Laura, Jamie and Natasha, maybe hit Camden, party some more (Enter Shikari, Juliette and the Licks, Senses Fail, New Found Glory), sleep some more and/or party late at Camden. Sunday: meet up with Laura again, party some more (AFI, MxPx, Hellogoodbye), sleep.

On Monday all of Holland will be celebrating our monarchy (meh) so instead I'll do some shopping in London and late at night I'll fly back to Rotterdam with VLM airlines. I'm off on Tuesday as well so that means I can sleep in which in turns means that whenever I said sleep before I really meant party, snog and shag because why waste time in London asleep?

Yup, I'm ready for GIAN!

Happiness by the Kilowatt

Gigs

Q. What's better than an Alexisonfire gig in May?

A. Two Alexisonfire gigs in May! I've got tickets for both dates (Amsterdam and Utrecht) so bring it on!

Q. What's better than two Alexisonfire gigs in May?

A. The one at GIAN in London in April because I bought Rachel a ticket for her birthday. Hope Laura won't be jealous about that, but then again I'm not jealous about Andy so Saturday and Sunday should be fun as well.

Give It A Name

Gigs

Just booked my three-day pass and I can't say the band list is disappointing, a lot of good acts have been added since I last checked.

Mostly looking forward to: Alexisonfire, Jimmy Eat World, MxPx, Hellogoodbye, AFI. Good to see again: Kill Hannah, HiM, New Found Glory, Motion City Soundtrack, Soasin.

Hello from the mountains by the way, still skiing, but back Sunday night.

Apocalypse cancelled

Gigs

Apparently the apocalypse did not take place yesterday, so the Dutch anti-666 marathon prayer must have been a great success! As were Alexisonfire and the other bands at 666Fest. It's only rock and roll, but hey, indeed, I like it.

Angels & Airwaves coming up on Friday, definitely looking forward to that one!

Happy 666!

Urbanity

It's 6/6/6! Reason for a party, especially over here: Rotterdam turns 666 today. However some people take 666 a bit too seriously:

Yvonne Colon-Stewart, who is nine months pregnant with a boy, didn't give the date a second thought, until a friend brought it up. "I think it's only natural that parents wouldn't want their baby born on the day that's marked for the Devil," said Yvonne.

Aw. Poor woman. Tonight it'll be 666Fest at the Melkweg for me, with Alexisonfire and more music of the devil aka rock and roll.

Give me a gig!

Gigs

Quick update on Give It A Name: it was sweet! And how could it not be, with bands such as The Ataris, Silverstein, Panic! At The Disco, Angels & Airwaves, Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance, Lostprophets. And many, many more. Said hi to Rachel, met wicked, sexy people like Caris, shopped at Camden Town.. yup, London still works for me.

Some recent gigs I might not have written about yet:

  • 5/4: Versus The World (Melkweg, Amsterdam)

    This was a tad quiet and boring to be honest. Lousy crowd and the show, well, I've seen and heard better.

  • 7/4: Zombina & The Skeletones (Morlock, The Hague)

    Zombina being an example of better. The sound was way, way, way too loud, but that didn't stop us from shaking our booties.

  • 8/4: Cheap Thrills (Dynamo, Eindhoven)

    (Enters groupie mode.) Signed drumstick. Wiee! (Leaves groupie mode.)

  • 14/4: Less Than Jake (Melkweg, Amsterdam)

    Always nice to have a band where you can skank, but it was a shame Din was ill.

  • 21/4: Cheap Thrills/Dicemen (Latenstaan, Zoetermeer)

    Ah, Sweet Lake City. Sweet is was.. probably because I spent €25 on beer that was €1.25 a bottle. Hiccup!

So what's up next?

Weekend musings

Gigs

Last March I rolled around in a foot of snow after a gig. As much fun as that was, I'm glad this weekend delivered plenty of warm weather instead.

On Friday I went to see Alexisonfire and Rise Against at Nighttown. The former were absolutely fab and I ended up buying a hoodie of theirs. Having wasted most of the cash I brought on beer, I actually paid for it with British pounds. I'm always trying to pull off something special, I suppose. Not that I actually pulled a bird, maybe because I am becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the Dutch punk rock scene. Guys and girls are really going over the top with their appearance as if rock music is all about fitting in with a subculture. Don't get me wrong, I like piercings, tunnels, tattoos, dyed hair and all that - I'm guilty as charged for three of them. But when every single person in a crowd is starting to look the same it is becoming somewhat lame. At least bring some individuality to the floor! The audience was not alone in exposing "been-there, done-that" behaviour though: Rise Against could not resist throwing in some anti-Bush sentiments into their performance. That too is getting a bit tiresome, folks. I probably would have yawned even if my political interests had not given me a more nuanced opinion than "war is bad, even when it spawns democracy".

Little criticism of government on Saturday: half of Rotterdam was dressed in orange, paying tribute to our unelected head of state for Queen's Day. Highlights of the afternoon were almost ending up in the middle of some small riots between violent drunks and the police at Stadhuisplein and seeing a lot of immigrants wearing orange head scarves. Cute. Went out for a quick drink at night but didn't stay out for too long: the forecasts for Sunday were good so I had to be up at a reasonable hour to work on my tan, which I did. Ended the weekend with some shopping: a book, a DVD and some groceries.

It's dark again outside, but my skin is still glowing from the sunshine. Can't wait until next weekend and I hope it will provide the same amount of fun, beer and sun!

Latest photos

2007-04-27 19:50
Alexisonfire VI
Alexisonfire VI
(0 comments)
2006-06-07 00:10
Alexisonfire V
Alexisonfire V
(0 comments)
2006-06-06 23:57
Alexisonfire IV
Alexisonfire IV
(0 comments)
2006-06-06 23:38
Alexisonfire III
Alexisonfire III
(0 comments)
2006-06-06 23:26
Alexisonfire II
Alexisonfire II
(0 comments)
2006-06-06 23:21
Alexisonfire
Alexisonfire
(0 comments)

Miscellaneous

© Copyright 1995-2008 Robert John Kaper. All rights reserved.

Tom has more friends but mine are prettier! (#1/1)